Hello KES Families,

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a wonderful break and a good start to the New Year! We will return to school tomorrow.

Deck the Halls was a huge success. Thank you to Kelly Addis and our PTA Moms for all their hard work in organizing the event and helping sell tickets. Many students went home very happy on December 20th with their prizes.

Thank you to our PTA Moms for organizing and running the fun holiday activities on the last day of school before break. The students had so much fun playing bingo, jumping in the bounce house, playing volleyball, and coloring.

Before break, students completed their Winter Benchmarking Assessments in mClass and MAP. Scores will be sent home this week by Friday. Please read over the scores and if you have any questions, please contact your child's teacher.

The weather outside is getting colder. We will be going outside as much as possible to get fresh air and to move around. Please make sure your child is wearing appropriate outside attire. Students need to wear a coat, hat, gloves, and boots during the winter months.

For PBIS in January, we are focusing on reviewing all of the "Hornet Traits". I will be meeting with each grade level to revisit the Hornet Traits and our KES expectations. On Tuesdays, please have your student wear the following colors to represent the different Hornet Traits:

• Kindergarten wears orange
• 1st grade will wear yellow
• 2nd grade will wear green
• 3rd grade will wear red
• 4th grade will wear purple
• Preschool and 5th grade will wear blue

I know how important birthdays are to students but we cannot bring in food items to share with classmates. The KES Health and Wellness Group, consisting of teachers, administration, the school nurse and parents, have had discussions on ways to promote health and still have fun at school. We do not allow food items at school to celebrate a child’s birthday. At KES, teachers will continue to recognize students’ birthdays in their own unique ways and parents can send in non-edible items to share with classmates to recognize their child’s birthday. We believe this change has many benefits:

1. Limit Disruptions. Birthday treats often arrived at various times of the day and many times this resulted in limited time and/or inopportune time for disbursement. If parents and caregivers choose to send in a non-food item such as stickers, pencils, a book, etc. for their child to share with classmates in recognition of his or her birthday, it can simply be sent in a backpack and the teacher can use a set time during the day to have the child share it.

2. Safety and Feeling Included. We are experiencing an increase in the number of students with food related allergies at KES. Often these children feel left out when they can’t have a food item or “treat” that the rest of the class can enjoy.

Please do not send balloons to school. This request is based on latex allergies and the danger they pose on the school bus. I am sorry for any inconvenience but moving forward there will be no birthday treats.

If your child is sick, please keep them home so they can rest, get better, and not spread germs. If students go home sick with a fever or throwing up, they must stay home for 24 hours to make sure they are fully recovered. Please remind your child to wash their hands frequently to help reduce germs.

Students are not allowed to bring phones and/or smart watches to school. They can be a distraction and we do not want anything misplaced or lost.

When students visit the nurse, an automated email will be sent to families to let them know when and why the student was in the Nurse's Office.

Please report all transportation changes by 2:00 pm so we can make sure the students receive the updated information.

If you are sending checks in for fees or lunches, please make sure you write separate checks because they go into different accounts.

Please keep all toys at home unless a teacher has directed other wise. We want to make sure students are not distracted by their toys and we want to prevent lost toys.

All visitors must stop in the Main Office to receive a visitor's badge and all volunteers need to be fingerprinted.

Important Dates:

January 7 - Students return to school & Girl Scouts Presentation during lunches

January 9 - 4th/5th Spelling Bee for selected students

January 15 - K-Kids

January 20 - MLK Day (No School)

February 1- Daughter & Daddy Dance

February 10 - PD Day (No School)

February 12 - K-Kids

February 17 - President's Day (No School)

Here is a link for the 2024-2025 District Calendar

If you have any questions, please call or email me anytime.

Sincerely,

Missy Godina

Kirtland Elementary Principal